This application claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications (the entirety of each of which is incorporated herein by reference):
Application No. 60/374,531, filed Apr. 22, 2002;
Application No. 60/376,722, filed Apr. 29, 2002;
Application No. 60/319,336, filed Jun. 21, 2002;
Application No. 60/319,360, filed Jun. 27, 2002; and
Application No. 60/319,434, filed Jul. 30, 2002.
The present invention relates to a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radio transceiver.
A primary goal of wireless communication system design is to use the available spectrum most efficiently. Examples of techniques to increase spectral efficiency include coded modulation techniques such as turbo codes and trellis-coded modulation, and multiple access techniques such as code division multiple access (CDMA).
Yet another way to optimize spectral efficiency that has recently become popular in the academic community is the use of MIMO radio systems. MIMO radio communication techniques have been proposed for use in, for example, 3G mobile telephone systems. However, prior efforts to exploit the benefits of a MIMO system have failed because, among other reasons, a cost-effective MIMO radio could not be developed.
A MIMO radio transceiver is provided to support processing of multiple signals for simultaneous transmission via corresponding ones of a plurality of antennas and to support receive processing of multiple signals detected by corresponding ones of the plurality of antennas. The MIMO radio transceiver is one that is suitable for a highly integrated and low cost fabrication. In addition, the radio transceiver can perform MIMO transmit and receive operation in a portion of an RF band, up to substantially the entire RF band. The multiple transmit and receive paths are particularly useful to support joint maximal ratio combining techniques, also referred to herein as composite beamforming (CBF).
The radio transceiver provides, on a single semiconductor integrated circuit, a receiver circuit or path for each of a plurality of antennas and a transmit circuit or path for each of the plurality of antennas. Each receive path downconverts the RF signal detected by its associated antenna to a baseband signal, using either a direct-conversion process or a super-heterodyne (multiple conversion) process. Similarly, each transmit circuit upconverts a baseband signal to be transmitted by an assigned antenna, using either a direct up-conversion process or a multiple-stage conversion process.
The multiple receive and transmit paths are integrated onto the same semiconductor integrated circuit. This provides significant cost and space/area savings. One use of this type of radio transceiver is to receive and transmit signals that, at baseband, are processed using the aforementioned CBF techniques (whereby weighted components of a signal are sent via each of a plurality of antennas and received at the other device by one or more antennas) to enhance the link margin with another communication device. In such an application, it is very important that each of the receive processing paths and each of the transmit processing paths be matched in terms of amplitude and phase response. Because the multiple receive and transmit paths are integrated into a single semiconductor die, the processing paths will inherently be better phase and amplitude matched, and any effects resulting from semiconductor integration will track among the processing paths. Moreover, any operational changes due to temperature variations will also better track among the processing paths because they are integrated into the same semiconductor integrated circuit.
Low cost radio transceiver solutions are provided that, for example, do not require intermediate frequency (IF) filters, have power amplifiers integrated on the radio transceiver integrated circuit (IC), use one frequency synthesizer, and integrate various control switches for transmit/receive and band select operations.